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Researchers said they discovered the first case of chronic wasting disease in a Pennsylvania deer on Thursday, years after they began testing and years after the disease popped up in surrounding states.

The disease appeared in a deer raised on a farm in New Oxford, Adams County.

Caused by prions that attack the brain, chronic wasting disease strikes deer, elk and moose, and kills the animals. Prions also have been linked to mad cow disease, but no evidence exists that chronic wasting disease can jump to humans.

"We don't have any indication whatsoever that there is a public health link," Dr. Craig Shultz, director of the Bureau of Animal Health and Diagnostic Services for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, said.

Shultz said the disease was discovered through routine tests required when any domesticated deer dies.

Technicians tested a sample from the infected deer at the Pennsylvania Veterinary Laboratory in Harrisburg and verified the results at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

While the news was released Thursday, Shultz said the first positive test occurred the week before.

Authorities quarantined the farm where the deer was found, but also two other farms. One is at 6464 Jacks Hollow Road, Williamsport, Lycoming County, and the other at 61 Pickett Road, Dover, York County. Animals cannot move on or off those farms while the quarantine remains in force.

Shultz said the deer previously lived on all three farms, and the detective work to track down the origin of this case of the disease has started at the farms.

"We'll continue to expand that until we track down any exposed or potentially exposed deer," he said.

Carl Rove, executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, pointed out that no case of chronic wasting disease, or CWD, surfaced so far among wild deer.

"Concerns over CWD should not prevent anyone from enjoying deer hunting and consuming meat from healthy animals," Roe said in a statement.

He said hunters should shoot only healthy-appearing animals.

Signs of chronic wasting disease include weight loss, excessive salivation, and increased drinking and urination. The infected animal might stumble, tremble and let humans or predators get closer than normal.

Hunters should wear rubber gloves when field dressing their deer and wash thoroughly when finished, Roe said.

To those precautions, Kevin Naugle of Naugle's Custom Butchering and Deer Processing in Pike's Creek, Luzerne County, told hunters not to cut into the brain or spinal column when field dressing deer.

Hunters who cut off antlers might pick up brain matter on the saw.

"Don't use the same utensil in the processing of meat," Naugle said.

Roland Lowery of the Country Butcher Shop in Sugarloaf changed the way he processes deer three years ago in anticipation that chronic wasting disease would reach Pennsylvania.

"It was only a matter of time. I kept hearing about it," Lowery said.

While he used to cut through the spine, Lowery now de-bones the entire deer as it hangs on a hook.

"That way we are not cutting through the spinal cord anywhere," he said.

He found the new way of butchering is faster, too.

Chronic wasting disease was discovered in 1967 in a captive mule deer in Colorado. Since then, it showed up in 22 states and Canadian provinces, including Pennsylvania's neighboring states of New York, West Virginia and Maryland. Pennsylvania becomes the 23rd state to find the disease in either a captive or wild population of deer and the 13th state to have it only in a captive deer herd.

Surveillance for the disease started in Pennsylvania in 1998.

The state Department of Agriculture requires that 23,000 captive deer undergo tests for chronic wasting disease on 1,100 farms.

The rules might explain why cases are observed on farms more often that among wild animals.

"We test very thoroughly and have a high testing requirement," Shultz said. Also, farm deer have a higher risk of exposure.

kjackson@standardspeaker.com

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